Xavier Faces

Frank Oppenheim, S.J.
Philosophy
This is a benchmark scholastic year for Oppenheim. He’s publishing new introductions for two books by American philosopher Josiah Royce and has a project under consideration for publication. He came to the University in 1961, when philosophy faculty spent their Friday afternoons gathered together tackling meaty issues. “The level of teaching and research has become stronger,” he says. “We’re asking for much higher quality of philosophy from students.”

Dawn Crooks
M.B.A. on-site programs
Crooks is working on her master’s degree in English while running the M.B.A. on-site program—an unusual combination, she admits. But she’s woven the two together and now likes the administrative side of education. “What started as a way to pay for school has become a serious career move,” she says. A self-described conservative poet, she’s writing a book, Sum of My Parts: A Collection of Life’s Peculiar Ways, on diversity and female empowerment.

Graley Herren
English
After four years of teaching modern drama, British and Irish literature, playwriting and literature, and the moral imagination, Herren is enjoying life. He just became a father, and April means the beginning of baseball season – his two great passions. In between feedings and the seventh inning stretch, he’s also a board member for the Know Theatre Tribe, an Over-the-Rhine theater group dedicated to multicultural productions.

Carol Maas
Athletics
“I get to see our best athletes, not as performers, but as kids,” says Maas. The mother of four came to the University in 1999 as secretary in the Olympic sports office. She recently became administrative secretary for the new basketball management program, in which she coordinates the various athletic seasons and works with the student-athletes on the student athletes advisory council.